


Parts in Flight

by Suez



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Firefly
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-28 14:17:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16243373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suez/pseuds/Suez
Summary: Life on Serenity has gone too far. Kaylee is on the wrong ship. Somewhere out there, there must be a quieter ship. A simple ship for a simple girl. What is she finds is a blue box. And another mad man.





	1. Running in parts

Flight don’t come easy. Even with choice thrusters and a ship built on nothin’ but the finest gearing a man can make, flight is hard. It takes unseen hours sweating under a boiling engine, fingers scraping raw against hot edges. There are hours in which you wait, empty and wanting for something to happen; waiting for the engine to kickstart the hope in you. 

Ofttimes it looks easy of course. Serenity can fool anyone like that. Mal would only have to urge her up, bellowing commands at the pilot. Wash would tell her where to go, how to go. But it was Kaylee who woke her up. Kaylee who listened to Serenity, fed her all that she needed. 

Her fingers like the contact, measuring Serenity’s heartbeat in heat output. The sun is always hot but never the same temperature. So it was with Serenity. Kaylee could read the truth in this warmth. Her fingers know how to touch her, how long human skin can endure against searing metal. The pattern of pulling away and reaching out, so that in short bursts, they could both touch each other for hours.

So it is with running away. It took days of reaching out and pulling back. Days of back and forthing through a million different options. In short bursts of thinking and wondering and scheming, a girl could dream of running away forever. 

At some point you have to break contact. Pull away and read the truth for yourself.

This running, it don’t come easy. 

She knew that.

 

2.

 

“You got yourselves two hours” said Mal. “I’m not ‘specting trouble, but on the off chance, y’all stay close. 

Like spitting distance.”

Most of them were already rushing past him at the mention of planetside relief. Even River was skipping ahead of her brother, starting the beginnings of a race that would take them all over this town. Shepherd Book was deep in conversation with Inara, listening to her advice on local attractions.

“Whose spitting?” asked Wash, as Zoe marched him down the ramp. “Mine’s so under-powered, it’s more like a lonely drool on my slightly trapezoid chin. That’s not much for rock leave.”

But Zoe, who wasn’t going to wait around for her husband to settle the ironic details of every throw-away metaphor he heard, pushed him ahead of her.

“I mean, “ he continued over his shoulder to Mal, “if it was more like Jayne’s spitting distance, we could probably go into town and catch ourselves a shuttle to a floating island on the other side of this rock.”

“C’mon,” she said, yanking his collar, “we have some well-earned fresh air comin’ to us.”

“I don’t know,” Wash frowned, “don’t really want to die from overexposure.”

“Shut up Wash,” growled Jayne, hoisting a sack of guns he wanted to upgrade, “you been yapping about rock leave more than the rest of us.”

“I mean it! Not too far” yelled Mal again. “ _Hey_ , my spit don’t reach that far Zoe.”

Kaylee was the only one left in the cargo bay, idling behind the captain. The people she loved were spilling into the world beyond and she would spill with them, drift around and past them, to worlds unknown. To homes unknown.

Somewhere out there, there was a ship. A simpler ship. Somewhere a little more quieter, a little more honest for the kind of girl she was.

“Where are you going Kaylee?”

She hadn’t heard him walk up to her. The world outside seemed to quieten when he turned his back on it. There was the cargo bay and them all alone in it.

He weren’t smiling his usual easy grin. His face was neutral, watchful. Captain had the kinda eyes, that if they weren’t twinkling, they was cold. Eyes frosted so deep it gave her the chills. And they was staring her down in ways that made her want to spill and confess. Truths bigger than what she was about to do. She wanted to tell him everything. All she was, all she had done in her days before him. If there was a truth she could tell him to shake that cold from his eyes, to shake her own soul clean for him, she would.

Mal saw things in people before they were ready to show it. ofttimes he was ahead on a trick or a turn. Now them same cold eyes were on her and he was waiting for an answer.

“Captain I’m just gonna look around,” she said. It wasn’t a lie … yet. She _was_ just looking. 

Nothing showed on his face and his eyes were just as useless to guess at. It was just Mal; good ol’ Captain with his hands in his pockets, staring at his favourite mechanic girl and there was no tellin’ whether he knew she was about to break his heart.

He nodded. “You go look and do what needs doin’.”

“Okay,” she said, turning her eyes to shake the chill and waved a shy goodbye.

“Don’t run too far Kaylee,” he said when her feet hit dirt.

Heart rattled in her chest and she stopped. She couldn’t turn. Kaylee knew herself. She weren’t steadfast like Inara; a woman who holds to every decision she makes, even if it makes her heart bleed. If Kaylee turned and Cap’n was still there, she might mistake her love for him as a call to come home.

And the cutting truth was, it weren’t her home no more.

It had come to her after that horrible night a few weeks ago when Niska had captured Wash and Mal. She had rushed in with the others, guns blazin’. But where the others raced ahead, she remained behind, straddling two mighty ships who couldn’t be more unlike. And she had realised it:

_I’m on the wrong ship_

So with the heat of two watchful eyes on her back, Kaylee got her feet in gear and kept on walking. No second looks, no last wave at the man she loved better than her own ma and pa. 

Gears rattled behind her, it was Captain pullin’ in the ramp. It cut somethin’ fierce, Serenity’s last groan.

He didn’t tell her to stay close.

Maybe the running part was already over.


	2. Wrong Turn Left

“Tell your fortune lady? The future predicted, your life foretold!”

Kaylee turned and saw a beautiful woman, perched gracefully on a chair. Wonderful scents wafted from a little shop behind her. Kaylee smiled politely and raised a hand, but she didn’t slow down. 

The woman called out to her again, but Kaylee shook her head. “Nah thanks. Don’t need a readin’ and don’t have much in the way of fortune.”

The woman smiled at her. “Don’t you wanna know if you’re gonna be happy?

“Can’t never know that for sure,” she replied. “So, no point paying for it.”

Even as she said it, the possibility of the woman’s question niggled at her. Didn’t she run away with Mal to find out this particular answer? Isn’t that why she was running now?

_What’s the point of finding out ahead of time, whether you’re gonna be happy?_ No, she decided. She wasn’t gonna be another fresh-off-the-boat mark to be swindled. 

Kaylee turned to walk off. This place was too crowded, she needed to get out of here.

“Wait!” yelled the woman. “You have green, uhh, brownish sorta colour eyes. Reading is free for green/brown-eyed people!”

She paused, squinting at this. “Really?”

“Of course,” she insisted, “come in, try it out.”

_Well in that case_ , she thought. _No harm in listening._

The woman smiled warmly and beckoned her into a small shop. Spicy-scented candles flickered against beautiful silk drapes covering the walls. Two chairs flanked a small table. The scent made her heady but calm. Kaylee felt reassured. 

Calm was good.

Once seated, the woman shuffled some cards and then took both her hands and turned them over.

“Yes, you are fascinating,” she said with a sly smile, her voice low and knowing. “Mmm, I can see a man.”

Immediately she thought of the doctor. 

Her handsome and gentle doctor. The kinda man she wanted the minute she awoke to see him wrap his strong arms around his frightened, shivering little sister. 

Even with a fed’s bullet in her, Kaylee had dreamt of those same arms around her own body, his voice on her neck, making her shiver too.

“Ah, what a most remarkable man,” purred the soothsayer, “he changed your life.” 

_Don’t run too far Kaylee_

Oh, well that would be her captain in the firefly. She thought of his dark unflinching stare, and for a moment the panic and guilt swelling inside her chest made her want to shoot straight back to Serenity. 

“Cap, he offered me a job,” she said, “well, actually, it weren’t even a job. He gave me his ship and asked me to keep her alive.”

Something rustled in the drapes and Kaylee’s head shot around. For a second she thought she saw something black and grotesque, but when her eyes focused, she saw only drapes. 

The fortune teller tugged at her hands. “Tell me about him,” she urged the girl, “tell me about the first time you met.”

Kaylee frowned. “I thought _you_ were supposed to tell me.”

“I see the future. Tell me the past.”

“Well, this boy I was seeing a while, gone and took me up Serenity.”

The memory made her smile. Goodness, she hadn’t taught about Bester in forever; had even forgotten his name. But now his face appeared strongly in her mind, as if she was reliving that exact memory.

Something about this room, the smell of spices in the air or the short constant flicker of candlelight, made her feel sleepy.

“Yes, but what led you there to that meeting,” questioned the woman impatiently.

“Well, I was on my way,” she began. 

Somewhere faraway, a rustling sound grew louder. 

“And I was about to…”

“Meet me!”

Something crashed to the floor at the same time as the woman released her hands. The sweet heady perfume died in her nostrils and Kaylee’s eyes became clear. 

The soothsayer was standing now with a mighty powerful look of hate on her face. She raised a long finger at something behind Kaylee. The table lay on its side and the rustling was gone.

“You, get out of here!” the fortune-teller screeched. Her face was all twisted into knots that made her foulsome looking. _Why did I ever think she was pretty?_

“I will, once I have _her_ with me,” said a man’s voice, sounding friendly but whatever he was planning, it certainly wasn’t taking a no for an answer.

Kaylee turned around, still chasing the fuzz out of her head. In the middle of this small perfumed den stood a man in a brown coat, with hands in his pocket. Grinning broadly. 

“Who are you?” asked Kaylee, rubbing her temples.

“He’s evil!” yelled the woman and she rushed backwards, scrambling out through the curtain folds to some back room.

_Oh crap_ , thought Kaylee, suddenly aware that the man was standing way too close to make a decent escape. Looking around, the only potential gear she saw were incense sticks and candles. 

Not that she would have fared better with a gun.

The man was now smiling expectantly at her. It was a broad open smile. The kinda smile people keep special. For special people. He seemed entirely unconcerned at the woman’s accusation and where she got to.

“Are you?” asked Kaylee, taking a step back.

“Am I what?”

“Evil?”

He grinned. “I am the Doctor.”

It weren’t an answer, but thinking on his voice, his posture, his dress, maybe it was. It was kinda weird the way he stood, laidback, like he was at a party making friendly introductions.

“I’m Kaylee,” she said.

“Oh,” he said, interested, “that’s a very cute name for someone who was about to end the world.”

“What?”

“You were about to make the wrong decision Kaylee, but it’s alright now, disaster averted.”

“What disaster?”

Her question went unanswered. The man frowned and grabbed both her shoulders. “Pardon me,” he said, and moved her resolutely to one side. 

“Ahh,” he exclaimed, crouching cautiously to something in the corner of the room. The man reached into his inside pocket and retrieved some odd tool she’d never seen. The light on the end burned a gentle sort of blue .

Interested, Kaylee leaned closer. It weren’t a tool she had ever heard of and the way it hummed...

“Some kinda sonic tool,” she murmured to herself. 

“Some kinda sonic screwdriver to be precise,” he corrected.

“Why would a screwdriver need to be sonic?”

“Why does anything need to be sonic?” he asked. “Because it’s cool. Wait what, no cool is a stupid word. Because it’s fantastic … no…because it’s …”

“Shiny?” she offered.

He looked at her like she had said something wonderful. Like she was wonderful. With a big happy smile, he said. “Yes! Because it’s shiny! I like that.”

“What are you doing?”

He turned to the corner of the room again, to a place behind some boxes. Looking at his face she weren’t sure there had ever been a smile.

“Eradicating something dangerous. Something I should have done a long time ago.”

The humming of his sonic screwdriver increased. He was doing something complicated with his fingers. Like fixing a corepipe to the system. Its calibration was gyroscopic, so to outside observers it would look like she was sitting perfectly still holding a piece of gear in her hand. But what she was doing was so slight, coaxing the needle to go a fraction to the left or right. He was doing hundred of little manoeuvres while looking perfectly still.

As the humming rose to a pitch, something began rustling again. Louder and louder until she heard shrieking. Kaylee jumped back. She ran to furthest wall, behind a chair. As if that could protect her.

“It’s alright,” he said. Kaylee wasn’t sure if that was to her or the thing.

Finally The Doctor lunged for it and grabbed the thing. The shrieking intensified and he flicked his sonic screwdriver in its direction and the shrieking stopped. 

“That’s better,” he said. 

“W-what is that?” Kaylee asked, her shaking finger pointing at something black, sort of like a twisted giant insect, black as the night. She shivered, thinking she had been sitting at the table with that thing behind her back.

“Oh it’s a Time Beetle,” he said as he shoved the creature into his (strangely large) inside pocket. “Out for another victim. It was about to trick you into changing the universe. For the worse.”

He looked up as he pondered his last sentence. “Always for the worse. Why can’t it ever be for better. Time beetle that makes everything just nice. No wars or fascist labour camps. Just more picnics. And little shops.”

“You’re not makin’ any sense.”

He opened his mouth to reply but then he stopped and cocked his head.

“What?” she asked.

“Yeah I think it’s time,” he said.

“For what?”

“For running.”  
He grabbed Kaylee’s hand, just as a shot flew past them, exploding the wall where she stood a moment ago. The ugly snarling woman was back and this time she had the weapons to match her fury.

They ran out of the shop. The world became a blur of shouts and shots. She crashed into a stall and a hand lifted her up from the chaos. Kaylee couldn’t think. All she knew was that the hand holding hers was leading her away from the woman. 

Suddenly The Doctor stopped in the middle of the street, while he fished for something in his pocket. 

Behind them, the woman stopped too. She spread her legs and lifted the heavy weapon to aim directly at them.

“We need to run Doctor,” she said. “What are you doing?”

Apparently he had been looking for a key, because that’s what he was turning into the lock. It was only then Kaylee looked up to see that they were standing in front of a blue box. A wooden box. It had the words Police box written in white on a black background. 

“Doctor wait. We need to go.” she said, pulling at his jacket. “That gun of hers just shattered a brick wall. What’s a wooden box gonna do?”

He smiled once again. “Fly.”

The Doctor grabbed her hand once more and pulled her into the box. 

Behind them a shot fired as the door closed. Kaylee closed her eyes and braced herself for an impact that never came.

“Open your eyes.” His voice came to her like a soft gentle thing after the rush of madness. So soft, she wanted to keep them closed and just listen some more.

“Open your eyes,” he said again.

She shook her head. Tears ran down her face and the terror that had been creepin on her since she saw that thing, suddenly shook itself loose in her. All the panic she had no time to feel earlier rushed at her all at once. Everything turned cold and she could not move. Every breath became an effort. She understood now. It was a punishment. That’s what happens. Traitors get punished and she got what was comin’ to her. How could she leave Serenity? Nowhere’s safe. 

Nowhere nowhere nowhere

Two warm hands braced her shoulders. A soft voice by her ear made a promise.

“Kaylee you’re safe now. You don’t have to be afraid. Not while I’m with you. Alright?”

Without thinking, she said: “Alright.”

And she opened her eyes.


End file.
